Inventory of the Swift & Allen Records In the New Bedford Whaling Museum Research Library Processed by: Judith Downey with assistance from Henry Kettell; machine-readable finding aid created by: Mark ProcknikFunds for processing this collection were provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities.Inventory of the Swift & Allen Records In the New Bedford Whaling Museum Research Library

For almost fifty years, during the most prosperous era enjoyed by the American whale fishery, Swift & Allen of New Bedford, Massachusetts, served the industry as agents, ship chandlers, and commission merchants. This organization, established in 1842 by Frederick Slocum Allen (1812-1896) and his brother-in-law Jireh Swift (1809-1905), grew out of Allen's earlier mercantile partnerships with Thomas C. Lothrop (ca. 1810-1839), 1832-1836, and Ireneus Gooding (fl. 1838), 1836-1841. Swift & Allen were major suppliers of cordage, iron ware, groceries, and other goods needed to outfit whaling vessels of New Bedford and nearby ports. In addition, the firm acted as agents for over twenty vessels from about 1844-1887, handling the outfits, accounts of crew members and masters, and sales of whale-oil, sperm oil, and whale bone for each vessel. Swift & Allen prospered with the whaling industry as a whole until after 1860, when Confederate raiders and Arctic ice caused the loss of numerous vessels and sales were beginning to feel the impact of the burgeoning petroleum industry. The firm's business activity gradually declined in the 1880s and in 1891 the partnership of Swift & Allen ended.

This collection primarily consists of business records of Swift & Allen, 1840-1885. The bulk of the material consists of ship's papers generated by eighty voyages of twenty-four vessels for which Swift & Allen acted as agent. These documents include correspondence; agent/owner accounts; outfitting books; crew papers including Whalemens' Shipping Papers, Hawaiian Shipping Articles, and crew lists; consular and customs records, including marine protests; insurance policies on vessels, cargoes, and whale oil and bone shipped from vessels; bills of lading and of exchange; bills and receipts; sketches of oil stowage and cask plans; and memoranda on whales sighted and whale-oil and bone shipped.

Many of the ship's papers in the collection reflect the loss or damage to fifteen Swift & Allen vessels over a thirty-five year period. Records of the Jireh Swift (Bark) contain Alabama Claims settlements resulting from the destruction of the vessel by the Confederate raider Shenandoah in 1865. Records of the Cleone (Bark) include correspondence and records of court case for damages from owners and crew of the Timandra (Brig) which "salvaged" the vessel. Additional records regarding this incident may be found in the Mount Wollaston (Bark) in 1877-1879 consisting of memoranda of expenses, extracts of correspondence and records of salvage from wreck. The Louisa (Bark) records contain an agreement regarding the vessel's collision with the Mongul (Ship), in 1852 and a statement made by the captains of the vessel and the Milton (Ship) against the captain of the Crowninshield (Bark) for their portion of a whale jointly taken. Records also exist for several vessels which were lost in the Arctic disasters of 1871 and 1876 namely the barks Camilla, Elizabeth, Swift, Eugenia, Fanny, and Massachusetts.

In addition to the ship's papers, this collection contains financial records; correspondence, accounts, insurance policies, and other records pertaining to vessels which transported whale-oil and whalebone for the firm, usually from Honolulu, Hawaii to New Bedford; legal documents, particularly bills of sale and insurance policies; and general memoranda for Swift & Allen, 1840-1895; as well as financial records and a signal book for Lothrop & Allen and Gooding & Allen, 1834-1846. Particularly notable among these records are volumes recording account payable and receivable, 1846-1874; a day book, 1876-1884; bills and receipts for payments to the New Bedford Port Society, 1853-1885; and memoranda concerning the shipment, stowage, and sale of whale-oil and whalebone, provisions, equipment, and other goods including gun powder, 1851-1885.

Records in the Swift & Allen Collection have been arranged into sub-groups representing records for each firm. Lothrop & Allen records are arranged in Sub-group 1 and those for Gooding & Allen in Sub-group 2. Swift & Allen records comprise Sub-group 3 of the collection. The financial records in Series A include records of transport vessels arranged in sub-series 7 by the name of each vessel. Ship's papers in Series B - Y are alphabetically arranged by name of vessel, then described in chronological order according to voyage dates. The final series of Sub-group 3 contains legal documents and general memoranda.

Researchers should note that additional records of Lothrop & Allen, Gooding & Allen, and Swift & Allen, amounting to 25 linear feet of material, are described by the inventory for Mss 5: Swift & Allen Collection in the New Bedford Whaling Museum Research Library. Other records of vessels which transported whale-oil and whalebone for Swift & Allen may be found by consulting the inventory for Mss 79: Ships' Papers Collection.

Access to the Collection

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Most of the records in this collection were donated to the Old Dartmouth Historical Society in 1945 by Mrs. Henry Forster. The Society in turn gave a major portion of the Swift & Allen Collection to Baker Library, Harvard University, in 1946. These records (lacking numerous day books discarded by Baker Library in the 1950s) were reunited with the volumes remaining in the Society's possession in 1968. Other materials which are now part of the collection were donated by the estate of William H. Tripp on 2 April 1960, Charles R. Phillips Sr. on 30 April 1965, and Mrs. Charles Batchelder on 22 December 1975.